THE JOURNEY BEGINS

One day, in December of last year, I searched the Web to find out how to make coleslaw. Honestly!...I came across a website called wikiHow that had the recipe. I made the cole slaw, and never left the site.

I had never heard of wikiHow, but the more I checked out the site, the more I realized that I would 'fit in'. Writing is my passion, I have been doing it for most of my life. Now I have an outlet for this passion. I write, edit, add pictures and create my own articles, which you can view on my personal page.

Becoming a major contributor has changed my life, it has enhanced it, and has created a more informed, more interesting, and younger minded great grandmother.

Being a part of the wikiHow Community, has altered my life drastically. It has given me friendships, and a bond with others who have the same love of the concept of wikiHow. It has brought youth, to my senior years.

It has brought me out into the world, while I sit in my home in Orlando. wikiHow has allowed me to help 'cutters' from all over the world stop cutting themselves through my Google Group, "Cutters No More', which I own and manage. I listen to the cutters, when no one else wants to. I offer advice to enable them to stop cutting themselves, without ever having met a cutter. I first became interested in it by finding a tiny article that appeared wikiHow. I enhanced the article, edited it, and watched it take turns in different directions as others edited the same article. Through the process of collaboration, it soon became a Featured Article, and read by over 112,000 people worldwide! The feeling that I feel inside, knowing that I am able to touch and help so many people is just unimaginable.

I write articles, viewed in such far away places, that they write about it in Arabic. I help others, by writing about my experiences in How to Live After the Death of a Spouse which in turn helps them find a new beginning after they lost theirs. I bring back happy memories of the good old days, to those who reminisced, and responded to me, with the stories they had to tell of the days, when the egg cream was in style, while they read the article I wrote about the New York Egg Cream.

Just as I reach into their lives, they also reach into mine. I have helped others, with my thoughts and feelings as they have responded with theirs. I have found a life in wikiHow and no longer feel lonely or alone. The entire Internet,is an extension of my family and my friends. My name will live on longer than I will, and I have left a legacy which pleases and comforts me.

I have been able to reach out far and wide, meeting people that I will never see. Offering a helping hand, as they read an article that, although happened to me, touches their lives in the same exact way. I help them to overcome loneliness, give them hope and to learn that by becoming a senior , does not mean the end of their lives. We live on, I live on, and by my words, which reach out to places I cannot even pronounce, and people who speak another language. I give them hope, support, and I give them a way to start life again.

I show them by my very actions, and my writings, that we can Get Old Without Feeling Old

I never could have become the youthful 75 year old senior, that I am. I neither look my age, act my age, nor feel my age. I have more in common with the youth of today, who share the same Internet passion that I do.

Sondra C. on August 27, 2006

The Woman In The Window

She sat at the window morning noon and night. She had no other life it seemed, except watching others. Her husband had died, and she lived with one daughter and her family, Those she did not like, she sneered at, but of course, they could not hear. Once in a while she got up from her seat to brew a cup of tea,or have a bite to eat. Aside from that, her time was spent at that window looking at all who walked by.

People she knew, waved at her while others just glanced up to look. Kids laughed and pointed to her shouting, "you crazy old lady". She heard, and never answered, but remained at that window in front of the busy street. One day, I walked past the window going to work. I looked up and she wasn't there. I kept looking, squinting to see if she were sitting behind shadows. I could not see her form or shape. Figuring she was having lunch, I went on my way as I had every day.

I spent the day thinking, "Where could she be?." I went home late that day. It was dark and her window had no light. "Perhaps she went to sleep," I thought as I hurried home.

Two days later, still no sign, of the woman in the window, I decided to check in the store below where she lived. The drugstore was empty, except for two. I walked over and asked, "Do you know the old woman, who lives above"? One woman answered, "Sure I do, she is a sweet woman, we wave every day". She turned to Clara, who just walked in. Hi ", we were talking about the woman upstairs". 'Oh, I know her" Clara said, but , I have not seen her in days". Tears filled Maggie's eyes. "I bet she died". Clara nodded, "she was very sick".

I could hardly bare the thought of her death, knowing I would miss seeing her every day. I walked out of the store, my eyes looked up, still no woman sat. I went home, told the kids. " Remember the story I told you about the woman who sat at the window"? "Well she died and no longer can I wave to her on my way to work" . I went to the phone, called all I knew who waved and spoke to her, to tell them the news. "We should do something, as a tribute to her, a plaque to give her family, write an obit in the papers, so all would know this woman would no longer be at the window waving to them ".

Days went by, and I stopped looking up, knowing I would never again see her. Then, one day, as I rushed to work, by habit I looked up at the window. I couldn't believe what I saw.

The old lady with an old man sitting side by side

looking out the window waving at me.

Flash Fiction Story, 500 words April 2006 by Sondra C.

(In memory of my grandmother who used to sit at the window)

reprinted from http://www.wikihow.com/User:Dreamgal2- Used with Permission

Life Begins at Any Age....It Cannot Count

They say life begins at 65, but don’t you believe them! Life begins at whatever year you decide to make things happen.

My life began at 75. It was the life that I had always wanted, not the life I had with my parents, or the life I had with my husband or my children This time it was what my life would have been if I had been as wise as I am today. and pursued a dream that could have started then, but I had to wait 55 years to happen.

Somewhere in the back of my head, and the tips of my fingers, as I touched the keyboard I knew that I had a dream inside of me. just waiting to come out….and happen. I just had no time to pursue it, or how to achieve it. So it just lay dormant within me. Just waiting.

Life went on. Husbands died. Children married, parents died, and still that epitaph that I had written for myself, so many years ago, nagged me…Here lie Sondra, she died without ever knowing who she was’……I did not realize that for a dream to come true, you had to move mountains, change paths, and, in my instant remain alone.

Marriage for me was no longer an option as it would hold no surprises for me. I wanted what I had never had, and so I returned to college to finish what I had started many years ago. The knowledge that I had gained, the atmosphere that I had enjoyed, the people that I met, and the challenges were remarkable. I thrived on it and aimed for the high grades, the lower ones being part of my life as a teenager….I graduated with honors, walked down the aisle with a grin from ear to ear. I had moved a mountain….I had done the impossible …and looked for more…..I walked into college at 63 years of age, and walked out 36 years of age.

And so I started a new life, a new day, with the dreams still inside, not knowing how to escape or be fulfilled. No matter, ahead were challenges, never before met. I picked up a brush and taught myself how to paint, I used a different brush and painted ceramics. Each time they improved. At times they even sold.

One day, I had the urge to have Cole slaw with my dinner. Silly urge, I had made it many times in my lifetime, but this time, I wanted a recipe I had once before seen on the Internet. And so, I Google searched make Cole slaw, and the recipe came up….and also a screen came up urging me on. My curiosity got the best of me, as I realized that this was a site where people ‘write’…writing had been a part of me my entire lifetime….and so as I printed out the recipe for Coleslaw, I also wrote one for cooking in a crock pot…and I never left.

It has been over a year now since I searched for the Cole slaw, and over 25,000 contributions that I have made, over 100 articles that I had started, over 60 of them Featured Articles. And still I remain, with no intention of leaving. It’s a world out there, and I enjoy being a part of it.

I woke up this morning, and realized, that the dream that I had so long ago dreamed, had somehow come true!!. The Orlando Sentinel had written a full page article about me….which ended up in the blogs, which ended up in the search engines which ended up with telephone calls to interview me for a radio station interview, and an interview for a major Blog…..I felt elated, no longer a nagging feeling , or a searching for something. I woke up content, and happy, my dream had finally come true. at 76 young years old. But its only the start of the dream…..this dream has more places to go….I just started a blog….and I will link to another blog, and web sites will link to me. My name will continue being found and accepted on the Internet, throughout the world…

Life begins at whatever age …as long as you keep taking the paths towards a new beginning. My life began at 75, with wikiHow as the start.

reprinted from http://www.wikihow.com/User:Dreamgal2- Used with Permission